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Manually backing up photos from Albums in Image Capture

I am trying to back up (manually) to my MacBook Pro's external hard drive the photos that are both in my Camera Roll AND in my few other Albums (iPhone 10). However, when I plug my iPhone into my MacBook Pro and open Image Capture I can see only the photos in my Camera Roll and not the other Albums.


Despite looking around on google, then using Apple Support Chat I cannot find a way to see the other Albums in order to back up these other photos manually.


I therefore decided to try and move all my photos that are in these Albums back to Camera Roll (in order for me to see them all in Image Capture to back them all up) but the advisor on Apple Chat said that this is not possible either.


Does anyone know if there is a way to view and backup the photos in my iPhone Albums in Image Capture or is it only possible to see the Camera Roll photos?


Thanks for any help on this?

iPhone XS, iOS 12

Posted on May 3, 2019 1:16 PM

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Posted on May 4, 2019 2:38 AM

Image Capture is showing only the Camera Roll. But all photos that have been taken with your iPhone or have been saved to the Camera Roll from other applications are in the camera roll. When you create an album on your iPhone, the album is just referencing the photos in the Camera roll. Importing the Camera Roll with Image Capture should save all photos you are having on your iPhone in albums.

There are two exceptions, however:

  • Shared albums are not a part of the Photos Library and not saved in the Camera Roll, unless you import the photos from the shared albums.
  • Albums you synced to your iPhone from your computer using iTunes are also not part of the Photos Library and not stored in the camera roll. You cannot import the iTunes synced photos using Image Capture.

Other than that, importing the Camera Roll photos will save all photos from your iPhone to your computer. You just cannot see the photos sorted according to the albums.



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Question marked as Best reply

May 4, 2019 2:38 AM in response to fairycake75

Image Capture is showing only the Camera Roll. But all photos that have been taken with your iPhone or have been saved to the Camera Roll from other applications are in the camera roll. When you create an album on your iPhone, the album is just referencing the photos in the Camera roll. Importing the Camera Roll with Image Capture should save all photos you are having on your iPhone in albums.

There are two exceptions, however:

  • Shared albums are not a part of the Photos Library and not saved in the Camera Roll, unless you import the photos from the shared albums.
  • Albums you synced to your iPhone from your computer using iTunes are also not part of the Photos Library and not stored in the camera roll. You cannot import the iTunes synced photos using Image Capture.

Other than that, importing the Camera Roll photos will save all photos from your iPhone to your computer. You just cannot see the photos sorted according to the albums.



May 4, 2019 11:34 AM in response to léonie

Thanks so much Leonie, after playing around on my iPhone today I realised my albums are simply referencing the photos in my Camera Roll as you say, that’s great, I can now manually back up from Camera Roll reassured all my photos are there and being backed up. I’m not needing to back up the shared albums or synced photos. Thanks again 👍🏼

Manually backing up photos from Albums in Image Capture

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